Explanation:
Where does a two-ton tiger hang out?
Well, in this case the Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder
(TIGER)
experiment hangs from a mobile crane on the far left in this panorama
photo recorded last December near McMurdo Station,
Antarctica.
The helium-filled balloon which carried
TIGER aloft for a
record setting 31+ days
is stretched out far to the right (scroll right) against the
background of majestic
Mt. Erebus,
the southernmost active volcano in the world.
While cruising with its two-ton payload above 100,000 feet,
the scientific
balloon's fully inflated internal volume was
roughly the same as the Louisiana
Superdome,
but its walls were as thin as shrinkwrap.
TIGER was designed to detect the unexplained
galactic cosmic
rays --
atomic nuclei moving at near light-speed
which impinge on the Earth
from outside
our Solar System.
By making the first sensitive measurements of
cosmic rays with
atomic numbers
between 26
(Iron)
and 40
(Zirconium),
TIGER investigators will
seek to identify the type of
astrophysical environments
which could be sources of the galactic cosmic-ray
material and possible ways in which the nuclei are
accelerated to such high speeds.